Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Fatyank

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 20, 2008
340
142
Chandler, Arizona
I am using 3rd Gen 12.9 IPad Pro. I have several CDs I would like to add to my Apple Music. I do not have a mac or laptop so no access to iTunes. Is there a way to do this?
 

AlaskaMoose

macrumors 68040
Apr 26, 2008
3,519
13,373
Alaska
I have no idea if the OP can import music from a CD/drive to the iPad, but one can in fact connect hard drives to an iPad...as long as the hard drive is self powered or one can powered it, since the iPad doesn't have a battery that is powerful enough to power external devices such as hard drives and CD players. There are numerous examples relating to what devices can be connected to the iPad, and how to do it. I have connected SSD drives to my iPad using some of the methods shown below.

Just go to YouTube and search for: "Connecting a CD player or hard drive to an iPad?"
This is a simple one that can be used for CD drives and such (shown near the end of the test):
 
Last edited:

sparksd

macrumors G3
Jun 7, 2015
9,213
29,259
Seattle WA
I have no idea if the OP can import music from a CD/drive to the iPad, but one can in fact connect hard drives to an iPad , as long as the hard drive is self powered since the iPad doesn't have a battery that is powerful enough to power external devices such as hard drives and CD players. There are numerous examples relating to what devices can be connected to the iPad, and how to do it.

Just go to YouTube and search for: "Connecting a CD player or hard drive to an iPad?"

No way for a CD or DVD player but you're right regarding HDDs or flash drives using the USB-C interface. But then the issue is getting the music into the native Music app.
 

Beefbowl

macrumors member
Mar 28, 2021
95
98
I just ran some tests with an external CD/DVD drive connected via the Apple digital video adapter…thing. I don’t know the official name of it, but it’s the one that connects via USB-C and gives an HDMI port and a USB-A port. The Buffalo drive I used has an external power connector, so there weren’t any worries about power.

Short version: Even though CDs I put into the drive would make a promising spinning-up sound and the drive DID seem to be reading them (based solely on the sound of the read head seeking), they didn’t show up in Music or in Files (using a data CD). Unplugging the CD/DVD drive and plugging in a hard drive mounted in Files immediately.

I also couldn’t see the CD from inside VLC. My suspicion is that there’s just no way to do it natively.

However, I did see a video a few months ago where someone was importing CDs directly into their Androld phone and that lead me to a product called the IO-Data CD Recorder. This apparently provides the software to do the ripping, and there appears to be an iOS compatible version as there are Amazon reviews from people using it with an iPad to import music.

Here’s the video I saw it in. I’m not sure how to do a time stamp but the CD recorder demonstration starts at about 5:50:


Downsides: As far as I can tell, it’s only officially sold in Japan so presumably the interface and all documentation would be in Japanese, and also you might need to get the app to use it from the Japanese app store.

But it does exist.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.